Sara Bareilles - Brave (Lyric Video)

  I confess, I am a fan.  A Big One!!   
  
Here's the story:
  I discovered this artist on the day her album Little Voice was released.  I chose one song randomly off the album to sample and, by the end of the 30 second clip, I was captured, I listened to little else for months, much to the likely annoyance of my husband and anyone who spent any amount of time with me. 
  Timing is everything, right?  Well for me, most often it is.  I was going through some stuff and the lyrics on this album reintroduced me to myself.  The words from Little Voice worked in me.  I heard my own little voice emerging....it scared the crap out of me, yet I held on and followed one small step in front of the other.
  I made a list not long after.  It was a list of all the things I wanted to do, including many of the things I was afraid of.  I began meticulously seeking opportunities to tear this list apart.  It included small things such as learning to ride a horse, taking french lessons, going back to school, playing the guitar well.  You get the idea.  Then there are the big ones, like jumping out of an airplane (which I have not done and have decided I probably don't really want to!), going to Wimbledon, writing a book, and sorting out where exactly I belong.  (I know my list is all over the place, and these examples only touch briefly on the rest, but why not, right?)
  So fast forward, yikes, a hand full of years.
  I've wanted to be a writer since I was 16, likely even before that.  I didn't know if anything I could ever conjure would turn into anything, but my mind was always active, and for a long time I didn't realize that I did have all these jumbled pieces in my head that were scenes from stories.  I thought I was simply a daydreamer, which I very surely am.  But one day I said it out loud.  I want to write a book, and that was it.   
  I didn't know if it would come to anything, but I kept at it.  And in all honesty, though my first attempt still holds a close and soft spot in my heart, it lacked a lot. 
  You want to know something though? I didn't care.  I wrote a book!
  It got easier after that, and I know I can't stop now.
  Yet when I thought about letting real people read my real work.  Wow, panic.  Or sending my work away, again I was faced with new fears.
  But I did it, and I continue to send away my work.

  Even these words on this page were frightening when I started creating them months ago.  I will also confess that each week before I hit publish, I feel a wave or tremor pass through me.  Should I do it?  What will people say?  Do I really want to share the real me with anyone?  Am I actually saying anything that anyone really wants to hear?  Or worst of all, have I lost my mind?
  The answer I came up with was, does it matter to me?  Heck ya!  It matters to me, so I had better do something about it if I was going to be honest and true to myself.
  So long story short, I put myself out there.....time after time, because I want to be brave.

 What does brave look like to you?  

 Thank you Sara Bareilles for grabbing brave by the wings on which it flies and sharing it with us!

  Take a listen all you beauties!